Maccabi wins again in Berlin

Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv retained its place among the teams with the best four records in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague after beating ALBA Berlin 89-95 on Thursday at Mercedes-Benz Arena in the German capital. Elijah Bryant starred with a personal-best 19 points on 5-of-6 three-point shooting plus 8 rebounds and 4 assists in helping lift the Israeli champs to 12-6 in the standings The victory was the 100th for Coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos in his EuroLeague career. It was also Maccabi's sixth straight win over ALBA in Berlin. Jalen Reynolds shined with 17 points and 7 rebounds, Scottie Wilbekin tallied 15 points and 5 assists and Jake Cohen added 11 points. Martin Hermannsson paced the home team with 16 points, Marcus Eriksson added 12, Rokas Giedraitis scored 11 and Luke Sikma and Niels GIffey 10 apiece. Sikma also collected 12 rebounds and 5 assists. The loss saw ALBA's record drop to 5-13.

After Eriksson opened the scoring with a three-pointer, both offenses started to flow with the lead switching hands several times. Bryant had the hot hand for Maccabi with 8 points – including a pair of three-pointers, the second of which tied the game at 12-12 after 4 minutes. Sikma and Wilbekin became focal points on offense for their respective teams with little separating them. Deni Avdija made a pair of threes to tie it again at 23-23. Avdija scored 5 more points and Reynolds added a three-point play in a 0-8 run that put the visitors ahead 26-31. Giedraitis free throws made it 28-31 after 10 minutes. Reynolds and Tyler Dorsey each scored twice in a 0-10 Maccabi push that gave the visitors a double-digit lead, 29-41. Giedraitis stopped the run with free throws and Landry Nnoko tried to solidify the ALBA defense with a pair of blocked shots. Back-to-back threes by Makai Mason closed the gap to 39-45 and prompted a Maccabi timeout. The pep talk from the coach did little to get the Maccabi offense back on track and Tyler Cavanaugh's hook shot completed a 10-0 ALBA march to get within 43-45. Bryant's fourth three-pointer of the half gave his team a 45-50 edge at the break.

Bryant picked up where he left off with another three to start the second half and Reynolds added to the lead as the visitors extended the margin to 50-59. Jake Cohen hit a pair of threes and Reynolds continued to party in the paint as the lead reached 15. Just when it seemed Maccabi had the game in its hands, ALBA reeled off 9 straight points – the highlight of which was a monster slam by Giedraitis over Avdija – and the third quarter ended with ALBA still in the hunt at 64-72. Jake Cohen restored a double-digit Maccabi advantage with a slam, but ALBA kept coming back; Eriksson's 100th career triple made it 70-76. Jake Cohen knocked down another three-pointer and Wilbekin drew a foul shooting a three-pointer and made the resulting 3 free throws for a 74-85 cushion. ALBA kept answering and another 9-0 run, in which Johannes Thiemann scored twice and Hermannsson closed with a triple, made it 86-90 with 24.3 seconds remaining. Quincy Acy and Hunter knocked down free throws to put the game on ice.

Pivotal player

Elijah Bryant thoroughly dominated for Maccabi with 19 points on near-perfect shooting. The rookie swingman tied his personal best in scoring while setting new highs in three-pointers made (5), rebounds (8) and performance index rating (29). He also contributed 4 assists. Bryant did much of his scoring damage early with 11 first-quarter points, but even in the fourth quarter, though he did not score, he made an impact with an assist and 3 rebounds.

Telling numbers

The teams were very close in many statistical areas and even finished with identical team performance index ratings of 106. The big difference between them was three-point shooting; while the hosts were 7 for 28 (25%), Maccabi made twice as many with fewer attempts (27) for a 51.9% success rate. Six different Maccabi men hit from downtown with Elijah Bryant (5), Jake Cohen (3) and Scottie Wilbekin (2) all making multiple threes.

100 EuroLeague wins for Sfairopoulos

The victory was the 100th for Maccabi head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos in his EuroLeague career. He won 75 games in his four seasons with Olympiacos Piraeus and now has 25 in a season and a half with Maccabi.

Back from the injured lists

A pair of ALBA players and one from Maccabi made their returns after missing time with injuries. Peyton Siva and Johannes Thiemann each missed the last three games. Siva played 13 minutes and contributed 4 points and 6 assists. Thiemann was worth 7 points and 3 boards in almost as much playing time. Nate Wolters missed five games for Maccabi with a hamstring injury and played 8 minutes in his return.

What's next?

Both teams return to action on Tuesday, January 14 for their first games of January’s two-round week. ALBA will visit Greece to take on Olympiacos Piraeus, while Maccabi will take on FC Barcelona at home.

Head Coaches

GARCIA RENESES, AITO

ALBA Berlin

"The first thing is that Maccabi played very well. With players who usually shoot 20% on three-pointers, they made 2 fo 2 or very good percentages, including their centers. They got 51% on three-pointers. And for us I think it was good because we played with very good energy almost always with good focus and we are beginning to play Tyler [Cavanaugh], JT [Thiemann] and Peyton [Siva]. This is good for us too. And to have good energy. I am happy with the team of course. I would like to have had fewer mistakes, but when Maccabi plays very well and we have good intensity, we must accept the loss. This is a good step forward and we must go on doing the same until the end of the season to have more possibilities to be in better shape than now.”

SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS

Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv

"I think we performed really good offensively, we scored 95 points. And, defensively although we tried to do our best, ALBA here, they are a rhythm team; if they find their rhythm, they can score very easy, they have a really good passing game. From one side we were always up in the score and we were controlling the game, we got two-three times difference of double-digit points, but always they came back. They were fighting. But I'm very happy with how our team performed and how they kept insisting to be tough and aggressive and won the game in the end. I think that the newcomers, Jalen [Reynolds] and also Aaron [Jackson], they started to pick up our philosophy, they're not ready 100%, but that for sure they are much better than the previous game. But that was only after two practices. As long as they practice with us and as long as they play the games, they understand the philosophy, they get into better shape first of all and also they will get to know the game and their teammates and they will be better and better."

Players

HERMANNSSON, MARTIN

ALBA Berlin

"Offensively we were pretty good, but they shot unbelievable. It’s tough to beat a team when we’re trying to take away something and they’re just everybody making shots. They’re a really good tea, one of the top teams in the EuroLeague. We were close, but not close enough. Everybody really fought today. We really wanted to win, we really wanted to show that we can play the best teams. Just with a little bit more luck on our side, it would have been a little bit better."

REYNOLDS, JALEN

Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv

"I'm just trying to find out where I fit in on this team and just doing my best to help this team win."

BRYANT, ELIJAH

Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv

"I think my guys were finding me, every night it can be anyone's night, so I think tonight I was able to hit my open shots and get some stops on defense and, like I said, hit some shots, so it was good. ALBA played really hard, man. They were really good in transition and the crash the boards really hard, so they were killing us in the first half with that. We cleaned some things up and had a little attention to detail and we figured things out. I think it's very important [to keep this momentum]. I think each week is an opportunity to get better no matter who we're playing. I think we got better definitely in the second half and, like you said, will carry that over to Barcelona."